Re: E450 stuff
On Sat, 24 May 2008 08:03:53 -0400 Nick Holland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Johan SANCHEZ wrote: On Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:32 -0400 Christopher Sean Hilton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On May 23, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Christopher Sean Hilton wrote: Hi, I inherited an E450 from my old job. It booted Solaris just fine but I was never able to get any of (Free|Net|Open)BSD to install on it. I feel that this is probably more do to me than anything else. As time has passed it's become pretty obvious between the problems with the install and the cost for power to run, my chances of running this machine in my environment are NULL. I'd like to make just one more attempt at getting the machine running. But ultimately I will have it carted away. This is what I have: Sun E450 4 x 400 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-5446) 4 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) Spare E450 Mainboard 2 x 300 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-4849) 2 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) I'm going to spend an hour today working on this to see if I can get a working install but even if I do the whole things going to have to go away. If anyone is interested in any of this equipment please feel free to email or xmpp me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Can i ask what is the problem you are experiencing with this ? what version of OBP are you using and what OBSD version did you tried ? Johan I do believe you will find OpenBSD will Just Work, and bsd.mp should spin up all four processors. I seem to recall there was some work done relatively recently on the sensors on an E450, and one usually has to be fully functional on a system before you worry much about the sensors. :) HOWEVER... IF you have only worked with PCs, Sun systems are different. Also, the average E450 has sucked a lot of dust through its CDROM drive, and functional SCSI CDROM drives are relatively rare in most people's spare parts pile. Fortunately, Suns offer a lot of other options for bootstrapping the system, but none of the rest are something the average PC user has ever done before. But man, E450s are big. But I'm sure you have noticed that. :) Some U80 and E450 may have unusual reaction when used in this configuration 4*cpu and 4gb of memory . Just have to check OBP version DC DC state also the PN on the system board could be helpful ... You can also keep only the first cpu in the box and see the results I personnally owned an E3500 running an 4.x few monthes ago ... hth Johan SANCHEZ http://www.chatou-informatic.com
Re: E450 stuff
On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 08:03:53AM -0400, Nick Holland wrote: Johan SANCHEZ wrote: On Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:32 -0400 Christopher Sean Hilton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [ snip ] Can i ask what is the problem you are experiencing with this ? what version of OBP are you using and what OBSD version did you tried ? Johan I do believe you will find OpenBSD will Just Work, and bsd.mp should spin up all four processors. I seem to recall there was some work done relatively recently on the sensors on an E450, and one usually has to be fully functional on a system before you worry much about the sensors. :) HOWEVER... IF you have only worked with PCs, Sun systems are different. Also, the average E450 has sucked a lot of dust through its CDROM drive, and functional SCSI CDROM drives are relatively rare in most people's spare parts pile. Fortunately, Suns offer a lot of other options for bootstrapping the system, but none of the rest are something the average PC user has ever done before. But man, E450s are big. But I'm sure you have noticed that. :) Nick. Thanks, My first crack at this box was probably 2 years ago, perhaps more. I do know that the sparc64 MP code was reasonably new in NetBSD at the time. I didn't really try to hard but OpenBSD (unknown version) wouldn't boot and NetBSD (2.0, 2.1, 3.0) would all stall at various places in the boot process. Since I couldn't get Stop-A to bring the machine back to the OpenBoot prompt reliably I figured that it was a bad mainboard. I requested another and received one with 2 300MHz UltraSparc II processors. That's where I went wrong. I installed one of the 400MHz processors onto the new mainboard and attempted to boot and got nowhere. I don't claim to be very versed in Sun hardware. If I can make it boot off of the CD-ROM then I can generally make it work. I can netboot Intel Machines with PXE ok. I hate floppy drives... On the advice of a friend who knows Sun Hardware much better than I I put the 2 300MHZ CPU's back on the second mainboard and the machine is happily installing NetBSD 4.0 right now. It's still not recognizing all the disk drives that I have in it but at least it installs now. Once I can get it to install I'm happy because I don't like giving away junk. Residential electricity in New England is currently $0.16 / kWh which means that this machine would probably cost more than $30.00 / month to run 24/7. It will never be a main line production machine for me but after successfully installing NetBSD and OpenBSD on it I can report that it works... -- Chris -- -- Chris Hilton chilton-at-vindaloo-dot-com All I was doing was trying to get home from work! -- Rosa Parks
Re: E450 stuff
Johan SANCHEZ wrote: On Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:32 -0400 Christopher Sean Hilton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On May 23, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Christopher Sean Hilton wrote: Hi, I inherited an E450 from my old job. It booted Solaris just fine but I was never able to get any of (Free|Net|Open)BSD to install on it. I feel that this is probably more do to me than anything else. As time has passed it's become pretty obvious between the problems with the install and the cost for power to run, my chances of running this machine in my environment are NULL. I'd like to make just one more attempt at getting the machine running. But ultimately I will have it carted away. This is what I have: Sun E450 4 x 400 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-5446) 4 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) Spare E450 Mainboard 2 x 300 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-4849) 2 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) I'm going to spend an hour today working on this to see if I can get a working install but even if I do the whole things going to have to go away. If anyone is interested in any of this equipment please feel free to email or xmpp me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Can i ask what is the problem you are experiencing with this ? what version of OBP are you using and what OBSD version did you tried ? Johan I do believe you will find OpenBSD will Just Work, and bsd.mp should spin up all four processors. I seem to recall there was some work done relatively recently on the sensors on an E450, and one usually has to be fully functional on a system before you worry much about the sensors. :) HOWEVER... IF you have only worked with PCs, Sun systems are different. Also, the average E450 has sucked a lot of dust through its CDROM drive, and functional SCSI CDROM drives are relatively rare in most people's spare parts pile. Fortunately, Suns offer a lot of other options for bootstrapping the system, but none of the rest are something the average PC user has ever done before. But man, E450s are big. But I'm sure you have noticed that. :) Nick.
Re: E450 stuff
On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 8:03 AM, Nick Holland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But man, E450s are big. But I'm sure you have noticed that. :) With lots of NON-LOAD-BEARING stickers all over the power supply handles. As a friend of a friend found out. When I moved last year, I tossed it out. 1KW power... man, that sucked a lot of juice. Other than because I can, I'm not really sure what use is a e450, it's a what, 8-10 year old box now. I went through and thought about what I wanted/needed, and threw away the sgi, the hpux, the decstation 3k and 5k, every box under 400Mhz, with one exception, my Apple ][gs. 15 computers, trashed. -- http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk This officer's men seem to follow him merely out of idle curiosity. -- Sandhurst officer cadet evaluation. Securing an environment of Windows platforms from abuse - external or internal - is akin to trying to install sprinklers in a fireworks factory where smoking on the job is permitted. -- Gene Spafford learn french: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G-3laJJP0feature=related
Re: E450 stuff
On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 12:17 PM, Steve Shockley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: bofh wrote: every box under 400Mhz, with one exception, my Apple ][gs. Man, what speed was that IIgs? I had put an accelerator in the box, so it's a speedy 7Mhz, as opposed to the standard 2.8Mhz or the slow - selectable for compatibility with //e and //c software - 1Mhz. I even had unix on it - GNO/ME. Unfortunately I couldn't win a DSW, GNO/ME didn't have /dev/zero. There was a DSW seeing how long it'll take your slowest system to do something along the lines of % time dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/null count=100 -- http://www.glumbert.com/media/shift http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk This officer's men seem to follow him merely out of idle curiosity. -- Sandhurst officer cadet evaluation. Securing an environment of Windows platforms from abuse - external or internal - is akin to trying to install sprinklers in a fireworks factory where smoking on the job is permitted. -- Gene Spafford learn french: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G-3laJJP0feature=related
Re: E450 stuff
On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 10:36:13AM -0400, bofh wrote: On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 8:03 AM, Nick Holland [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But man, E450s are big. But I'm sure you have noticed that. :) With lots of NON-LOAD-BEARING stickers all over the power supply handles. As a friend of a friend found out. When I moved last year, I tossed it out. 1KW power... man, that sucked a lot of juice. Other than because I can, I'm not really sure what use is a e450, it's a what, 8-10 year old box now. I went through and thought about what I wanted/needed, and threw away the sgi, the hpux, the decstation 3k and 5k, every box under 400Mhz, with one exception, my Apple ][gs. 15 computers, trashed. too bad shipping on those big old boxes is so expensive. I'm of the low-MHz CPU thread. I still have to get a steel case for my dual P-133 Tyan board and try a modern PATA drive on it, but in general it works just fine. Doug.
E450 stuff
Hi, I inherited an E450 from my old job. It booted Solaris just fine but I was never able to get any of (Free|Net|Open)BSD to install on it. I feel that this is probably more do to me than anything else. As time has passed it's become pretty obvious between the problems with the install and the cost for power to run, my chances of running this machine in my environment are NULL. I'd like to make just one more attempt at getting the machine running. But ultimately I will have it carted away. This is what I have: Sun E450 4 x 400 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-5446) 4 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) Spare E450 Mainboard 2 x 300 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-4849) 2 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) I'm going to spend an hour today working on this to see if I can get a working install but even if I do the whole things going to have to go away. If anyone is interested in any of this equipment please feel free to email or xmpp me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Thanks -- Chris Hilton
Re: E450 stuff
On May 23, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Christopher Sean Hilton wrote: Hi, I inherited an E450 from my old job. It booted Solaris just fine but I was never able to get any of (Free|Net|Open)BSD to install on it. I feel that this is probably more do to me than anything else. As time has passed it's become pretty obvious between the problems with the install and the cost for power to run, my chances of running this machine in my environment are NULL. I'd like to make just one more attempt at getting the machine running. But ultimately I will have it carted away. This is what I have: Sun E450 4 x 400 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-5446) 4 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) Spare E450 Mainboard 2 x 300 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-4849) 2 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) I'm going to spend an hour today working on this to see if I can get a working install but even if I do the whole things going to have to go away. If anyone is interested in any of this equipment please feel free to email or xmpp me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) I forgot to mention that I'm located in Southern CT, USA (roughly 80 miles north of NYC on I-95) -- Chris
Re: E450 stuff
On Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:32 -0400 Christopher Sean Hilton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On May 23, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Christopher Sean Hilton wrote: Hi, I inherited an E450 from my old job. It booted Solaris just fine but I was never able to get any of (Free|Net|Open)BSD to install on it. I feel that this is probably more do to me than anything else. As time has passed it's become pretty obvious between the problems with the install and the cost for power to run, my chances of running this machine in my environment are NULL. I'd like to make just one more attempt at getting the machine running. But ultimately I will have it carted away. This is what I have: Sun E450 4 x 400 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-5446) 4 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) Spare E450 Mainboard 2 x 300 MHz UltraSparc II processors (Sun P/N 501-4849) 2 x DC power regulator boards (Sun P/N 300-1322) 4GB of RAM (16 x Sun P/N 501-4743) I'm going to spend an hour today working on this to see if I can get a working install but even if I do the whole things going to have to go away. If anyone is interested in any of this equipment please feel free to email or xmpp me ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Can i ask what is the problem you are experiencing with this ? what version of OBP are you using and what OBSD version did you tried ? Johan http://www.chatou-informatic.com
Re: E450 stuff
On Fri, 23 May 2008, Christopher Sean Hilton wrote: On May 23, 2008, at 11:06 AM, Christopher Sean Hilton wrote: I inherited an E450 from my old job. It booted Solaris just fine but I was never able to get any of (Free|Net|Open)BSD to install on it. I feel that this is probably more do to me than anything else. As time has passed it's become pretty obvious between the problems with the install and the cost for power to run, my chances of running this machine in my environment are NULL. I'd like to make just one more attempt at getting the machine running. But ultimately I will have it carted away. I have an E450 (single 400MHz cpu) that I'm running FreeBSD on. Seems to work fine (hot swapping those drives is just cool!). But it's been a couple years, so I don't remember if I had any problems doing the install. -- Vicky Staubly http://www.steeds.com/vicky/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
